Morgan Stanley Gets a WhatsApp Bounce, But J.P. Morgan Still No. 1

It’s been the busiest start for M&A both globally and in the U.S. With Facebook 's $19 billion acquisition of the messaging service WhatsApp, Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan are now nearly neck and neck for the top spot in the M&A advisory league tables.

Both banks have had a busy week with each working on two of the three largest deals in the past week. Coincidentally, the three biggest deals of the past week were also the largest of the year.

Morgan Stanley was WhatsApp’s sole adviser, which vaulted the investment bank within inches of J.P. Morgan as the top adviser on global M&A in 2014.

Morgan Stanley is now just $7 million behind J.P. Morgan on the value of announced deals in 2014 after working on deals valued at $146,961 billion compared to J.P. Morgan’s $146,968 billion. Both banks have worked on 30 deals this year and have a 29.6% market share.

In the U.S., Morgan Stanley trails J.P. Morgan by a wider margin, but holds the lead in tech M&A.

Yet J.P. Morgan is still clinging to the top spot on the league tables. The bank has scored several coups of its own in 2014. Notably, J.P. Morgan landed key roles on the two biggest deals of the past week, which were coincidentally the two largest deals of 2014: Comcast Corp.'s $45 billion deal for Time Warner Cable and drugmaker’s Actavis 's $25 billion deal for Forest Laboratories.

Comcast has a long history with J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley. Both banks worked on Comcast’s 2009 deal to take control of NBC Universalfrom General Electric Co. Comcast, which worked with Morgan Stanley in 2009, tapped J.P. Morgan to lead its surprise bid for Time Warner Cable. Morgan Stanley also landed a role on this deal, working with Time Warner Cable.

The second biggest deal of 2014, which tied up pharmaceutical companies Actavis and Forest Labs, was first conceived at J.P. Morgan’s Healthcare Conference in San Francisco in mid January. J.P. Morgan’s health-care bankers had seen the possible merger of the drug makers as favorable for both and arranged dinner between the CEOs, where they met for the first time and discussed the merits of combining their businesses, according to a person close to the deal.

Morgan Stanley had long served as Forest Labs’ bankers, but J.P. Morgan’s team had worked with Forest Labs’ new CEO Brent Saunders on the sale of Bausch & Lomb to Valeant for nearly $9 billion in early 2013.

J.P. Morgan beat out Morgan Stanley to land a spot on this deal as Forest Labs sole banker. Actavis engaged Greenhill & Co. The bankers and lawyers on the deal raced to put the deal together in less than a month to avoid any leaks or rival bidders popping up.

For this week at least both J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley may be ready to take a victory lap. Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse hold the third and forth spots respectively in the global M&A league tables, but those two banks need another $35 billion in advisory work on deals to run ahead of J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley.

Update: This post was updated to note that J.P. Morgan worked as General Electric’s banker and Morgan Stanley worked with Comcast on Comcast’s buyout of NBC Universal from GE. The original version of the post inaccurately said that J.P. Morgan worked with Comcast on the NBC deal.